Gonzaga University: Refusal to Recognize Christian Pro-Life Club

Two Christian student groups, The Christian Legal Society and The Christian Pro-Life Caucus, failed to gain recognition from Gonzaga Law School's Student Bar Association (SBA). The Christian Pro-Life Law Caucus was rejected as an official student group last fall, when SBA president Albert Guadagno declared that the Christian group's requirement that its leadership be Christian was "discriminatory." Gonzaga University's president, Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., failed to intervene on behalf of either group despite Gonzaga Law's promise to be a "welcoming environment for students of all religious backgrounds or secular moral traditions."

    Case Materials

  • "Gonzaga Law School Rejects Yet Another Christian Group," March 10, 2004: Since the fall of 2003, FIRE has been defending the Christian Pro-Life Caucus at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. It now has come to light that yet another Christian group, the Christian Legal Society, also failed to gain recognition from the law school's Student Bar Association (SBA). The Christian Pro-Life Law Caucus had been rejected as an official student group last fall, when SBA president Albert Guadagno declared that the Christian group's requirement that its leadership be Christian was "discriminatory." Gonzaga's president, Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., has failed to intervene on behalf of either group despite Gonzaga Law's promise to be a "welcoming environment for students of all religious backgrounds or secular moral traditions."
  • "Gonzaga Law School Bans Christian Pro-Life Group, Calling Christian Leadership Requirement ‘Discriminatory’," December 22, 2003: Gonzaga University's president, himself a Jesuit priest, has permitted the School of Law's Student Bar Association (SBA) to deny recognition to a Christian student organization for being Christian. According to the SBA, which acts as an agent of the university in the matter of student group recognition, the Gonzaga Pro-Life Law Caucus's requirement that its leadership be Christian is "discriminatory." In addition, Gonzaga, which recently punished the College Republicans merely for using the word "hate" on their fliers, now claims that this punishment never happened.
  • "FIRE Letter to Gonzaga University President Robert J. Spitzer, November 24, 2003," November 24, 2003